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In SharePoint i have a document libary. This libary has the following versioning settings.

enter image description here

When the draft document (0.2) is published as major version the history looks like that.

History from SP 2010

After the document is approved. The Version history looks like that.

History from SP 2010

The published 0.2 Version get automaticaly the Version 1.0. But the approver for Version 0.2 is not saved in the history.

Is it possible to store the approver for the document in the version history too?

Because I was wondering that SharePoint 2003 (WSS 3.0) the approver save in the history, like the progress described above.

Here is the same procedure executed in wss3.0

Versionhistory from wss 3.0

The Version 0.2 was published as major version... it get the state "pending" after approving the 0.2, a new version 1.0 was created and added to the history. So the approver would be saved.

//Edit: I added some images to describe the problem.

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Can't you see the actual Approver in the Modified By column? At all stages (Check-In Major - aka Submit for Approval) or simply Approving it that column gets updated with the Person doing it.

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  • Yes but that is the actual state, but I want a histroy for each approved document (e.g. version 1.0 ... version 2.0 and so on). – Sascha Apr 17 '13 at 8:43
  • Did you had a look at the Version History page?? – Marius Constantinescu - MVP Apr 17 '13 at 11:08
  • yes. I tried the versionhistory from the contextmenue from the file and also from the ribbon menue. I had added my displayed versionhistory in the first post as images. – Sascha Apr 17 '13 at 12:05
  • I believe i understand what your actual issue is: the minor version gets promoted as major and you loose track of the version because of this fact. unless you build a handler to track such case, nothing out-of-the-box exists – Marius Constantinescu - MVP Apr 17 '13 at 16:49
  • 1
    I must say never did something like that, and i'm pretty sure the same process was valid in WSS v3. i assume one could duplicate the last minor prior in the ItemUpdating/ItemUpdated if the SPModerationStatusType (msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/…) – Marius Constantinescu - MVP Apr 17 '13 at 19:42
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So after I Checking some solutions. I decided to create a "custom code solution"....

I Use the Eventreceiver and attach to them the ItemUpdating Event.

The code look like that.

   public override void ItemUpdating(SPItemEventProperties properties)
   {

       // Is Versioning 
       if (properties.Versionless.Equals(false))
       {

           // Check if it is an approval by an user
           if ((properties.BeforeProperties["vti_doclibmodstat"] != properties.AfterProperties["vti_doclibmodstat"])
               &&
               ((properties.AfterProperties["vti_doclibmodstat"].ToString().Equals("0")) || (properties.AfterProperties["vti_doclibmodstat"].ToString().Equals("1"))))
           {
                try
                {

                    // set the new cmomment in the document info panel (Extend it with the approver username)
                    properties.AfterProperties["vti_doclibmodcomm"] += string.Format("\nApproved by: {0}", properties.UserLoginName);

                    // extend the history comment with the approver username
                    properties.AfterProperties["vti_sourcecontrolcheckincomment"] += string.Format("\nApproved by: {0}", properties.UserLoginName);
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    SPDiagnosticsService.Local.WriteTrace(0, new SPDiagnosticsCategory("ApproverEventReceiver", TraceSeverity.VerboseEx, EventSeverity.Error), TraceSeverity.Unexpected, ex.Message, ex.StackTrace);
                }
           }
       }
       base.ItemUpdating(properties);
   }

This do the following actions:

On each approve, it takes the current Username and attach them to the approver comment. So this would display like this

enter image description here

It also extent the version comment with the sentence "Approved by {UserName}"

enter image description here

I think this is a good solution to track the approvers in sharepoint. So it supports then the ISO process i mean.

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  • Is good that you end building your own solution following suggestions on the forum, however recognizing those suggestions is all about here! thank for sharing your result nevertheless. – Marius Constantinescu - MVP Apr 26 '13 at 11:27
  • I'd like to take a moment to say that this is a great example of why Sharepoint is not ready for real-world use. Simple needs like keeping track of who approved documents should not require writing custom code. Microsoft gets flack about IE, but SharePoint is the real abomination. – JohnFx Oct 10 '14 at 19:38
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Always use 

           ListItem.SystemUpdate(false);

to update the document library value from draft to Approved. So, there wont be any changes to the version of the document when there is a status change.

The Version history is always available over the Display Form Type of the Particular Document Library. enter image description here

Thanks,

Prasath

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  • Hi, but I add the document not by code. I add them manualy over the frontend. – Sascha Apr 17 '13 at 10:41
  • You have to use some workflows for approving the particular document. so that the status changes to draft to approved. rt? – Prasath Sivagnanam Apr 17 '13 at 10:49
  • No there is now workflow or s.th. only the standard document list. And the customer showed me the approve progress in wss3.0 (which was installes with project server) there will be stored the approver in the history as seprate history item. – Sascha Apr 17 '13 at 10:56
  • Hope, when published as major version and after approval the history takes it as major version document. Thanks – Prasath Sivagnanam Apr 17 '13 at 11:17
  • Yes but the problem is, that the data is lost who approved the publishing or the username of the pending state is lost. I added a screenshot from wss 3.0. There ist the same procedure executed as described above. But I get a different history display :-( – Sascha Apr 17 '13 at 12:16

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